The Programme aims to explore aspects of Byzantine everyday life, their relation to material culture and their formalisation into coherent systems of representation. Research activity includes analysis and interpretation of Byzantine perceptions and intellectual attitudes, and the response expressed by literature and art to the demands of collective or individualised audiences. Therefore, research relies on a variety of sources: texts and works of art, objects and other remains of material culture. For achieving its objectives the Programme established an important network of collaborations with academics and independent researchers in Greece and abroad. Furthermore, the team's activities include the organisation of workshops and conferences; the members of the research team actively participate in various research projects in Greece and abroad, and in advisory boards set by cultural foundations and associations.

Currently the Programme covers two thematic orientations:
1. ''Technology and Management of Olive Oil and Wine'' and “Byzantine diet and Gastronomy”. This orientation focuses on (a) the development of technology for producing and storing wine, olive oil, honey and milk, and (b) the impact of the products' cultivation, production and trade in the economy of Byzantium and Eastern Mediterranean during the Middle Ages.
2. ''Perceptions, Attitudes and Modes of Expression''. This orientation focuses on (a) stability, change and renewal of the social and moral regulations that regard the body, the senses and the emotions, and their gender implications, and (b) the passage from collective to individual attitudes. Byzantine views on economic phenomena, and the investigation of the imaginary world of the Byzantines are important components of the project.
The direction also includes the preparation and publication on the web of the digitised database ''Dreaming in Byzantium'', which aims at providing a tool for the study of the function and use of dreaming in Byzantium by recording dream reports from a variety of sources.

History

The Programme was established in 2000 and has established an important network of collaborations with academics and independent researchers in Greece and abroad, inviting scholars for Seminar lectures and organizing international Symposia: 2000: ''The Awaking of the Senses and of Personal Choices'' (Athens, IBR/NHRF, 24-25 November). 2005: ''The Book in Byzantium: Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Bookbinding'' (in collaboration with the IBR Programme ''Archival, Palaeographical and Diplomatic Research''; Athens, 13-16 November). 2006: ''Monemvasian Wine - Monovas(i)a - Malvasia'' (in collaboration with the IBR Programme ''Historical Geography of the Greek Region''; Athens, IBR/NHRF, 19-20 May). 2008: ''Dreams and Visions in Late Antiquity and Byzantium'' (Athens, IBR/NHRF, 23-24 May). 2008: ''Animals and Environment in Byzantium (7th-12th centuries)'' (Athens, IBR/NHRF, 6-7 June).

Ongoing Projects

Preparation and publication on the web of the digitised database ''Dreaming in Byzantium''.

Preparation and publication of the History of the Οlive Τree and Οlive Οil (Cultural Foundation of Piraeus Bank Group, PIOP).